Indiana Wind Symphony to present ‘Echoes of Halloween’

It might be five days after Halloween, but Indiana Wind Symphony Music Director Charles Conrad figures the audience will still be in the mood for some haunting music.

IWS will present “Echoes of Halloween” at 6:30 p.m. Nov. 5 at the Palladium at the Center for the Performing Arts in Carmel.

The concert will open with a piece called “Witch Hunt” by Aaron McMichael.

The concert will close with “Dream of a Witches’ Sabbath” by Hector Berlioz.

“More people will know it as the finale to ‘Symphony Fantastique,’” Conrad said. “It’s really a significant piece in the history of music because it’s kind of the official opening of the Romantic Period. It’s one that shocked everybody in 1830 when it first premiered. It’s one of those landmark movements in the history of music. It introduced so many new sounds that people had never heard before. When you hear it, you think it was written in the 1880s instead of 1830. It’s just that far ahead of its time.”

Conrad said IWS is playing another piece based on it, called “Fantastique,” by Tyler Harrison.

“It’s a spoof of the piece (the audience) will hear right after ‘Dream of a Witches’ Sabbath,’” Conrad said.

IWS principal flute player Carl Butler is the soloist in the concert, performing during the “Concerto in D Major” by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

“That will be the first time we’ve performed that piece,” Conrad said.

The four members of the bassoon section will be featured in the “Funeral March of a Marionette.” It was written first as a piano piece in 1872 and orchestrated in 1979, but the IWS commissioned the arrangement,

“People will recognize it because it’s the theme from the old ‘Alfred Hitchcock Presents’ TV show,” Conrad said.

Conrad said the concert also will include “Symphony in Blue and Gold,” which was part of a commission consortium. The composer is Erika Svanoe.

“It’s a jazzy, very modern-sounding symphony with kind of a jazz rhythm section,” Conrad said. “It will be a little different sound than most people are used to hearing from a concert band.”

For more, visit indianawindsymphony.org.